Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’ Tara Robinson (#23) get the force out at second base as University of Redlands (#14) AJ Carrasco slides, in the fourth inning of the NCAA Division 3 Regional Tournament, Saturday, in Redlands, May 10, 2014. (Photo by John Valenzuela/The Sun)

REDLANDS >> The softball teams from Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and the University of Redlands have played nine times this season and while the Bulldogs dominated early, it is the Athenas who have won the battles that mattered most.

CMS registered a 7-2 victory over Redlands on Saturday to close out the regional and advance to this week’s Super Regional at Texas-Tyler against an opponent to be determined.

“Any time we go against them it’s a nerve-wracking battle,” CMS coach Betsy Hipple said. “The teams know each other so well. But it’s great to play them. It has turned into a great rivalry. They have helped get us get where we are and we’re better because of them.”

Redlands (31-15) won all four regular-season meetings but CMS (31-13) won two of three at the SCIAC Tournament and went 2-0 vs. the Bulldogs in this weekend’s regional.

“They have definitely gotten the better of us lately,” said Redlands coach Dani Spaulding. “You have one inning like they did, it’s hard to come back from that. They got the job done.”

CMS defeated Redlands on Friday 8-5 which kept the Athenas in the winner’s bracket and meant the Bulldogs needed two wins over CMS on Saturday to advance to the Super Regional. But much like Friday, one inning spelled doom for the host team.

This time it was the third as the Athenas broke open a scoreless game with a six-run outburst, aided by one Redlands throwing error as well as a mental error.

The Athenas sent 11 hitters to the plate. The inning featured six hits, most notably a two-run double by Brooklyn Robinson and RBI singles by Janelle Shiozaki and the team’s lone senior Morgan Beltz. Shiozaki actually had two hits in the inning, the first and the last.

Much of the damage came at the expense of Redlands starter Lauren Henson (8-4), who worked out of jams in the first and second innings but couldn’t do so in the third.

Kaitlyn Hooper finished out the inning and the game.

CMS junior starter Hayley Schultz (16-5) cruised, setting down the first nine hitters she faced and 17 of the first 18.

“It felt good out there,” Schultz said. “When you get some runs it definitely makes it easier. I knew I had a good team out there with me so I didn’t have to do it all.”

It wasn’t until the seventh inning that the Bulldogs scored two and that was after CMS was already comfortably in front 7-0. Schultz gave up just two hits, one walk and hit a batter but both the runs she allowed were unearned.

“It says a lot that we can face them as many times as we have and Hayle was able to hold them to two hits and two runs,” Hipple said. “She did a good job of making adjustments and mixing it up so it wasn’t predictable.”

The Athenas banged out 15 hits with Shiozaki and Katie Savard getting three each. Four other CMS players contributed two.

Shultz was named tournament MVP. She was joined on the all-tournament team by fellow Athenas Savard, second baseman Brooklyn Robinson and Beltz, shortstop Vikci King, center fielder Amanda Lievanos, right fielder A.J. Carrasco of Redlands and left fielder Erin Carson and first baseman Haylie Watson of Linfield, Ore.

“We feel like we have a lot of momentum going into the Super Regional,” Savard said.

Michelle Gardner has covered high school sports and local colleges for the Daily Bulletin and Sun since 2002. She previously covered a wide variety of sports from the high school level to the professional ranks in Florida with tenures at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Naples Daily News and the Fort Myers News-Press and is graduate of the University of Florida.

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